From Family, Hollywood cultural embeddedness, My Jewish heritage, and West Hollywood neighborhood

When Grandpa Charlie was a teenager in Chicago he had a job in a film processing plant owned by William Selig. When Selig set up the first permanent movie studio in Southern California in 1909, Charlie came out to run the film lab, at about the age of 20. He then ran the lab for Charlie Chaplin, and then for 25 years ran the lab for Hal Roach, where they filmed Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang, later known as The Little Rascals. When I was born he was transitioning to CFI (Consolidated Film Industries) where he was lab manager for another 25 years.

Charlie Chaplin in foreground, grandpa Charlie Levin top right

He built 3 little houses on Willoughby Avenue in West Hollywood sometime before 1921. He and his wife Sophie lived in one, and when I was born, my mom and dad lived in another.